WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

MISSING GIRLS, LAND AND POPULATION CONTROLS IN RURAL CHINA
3. Henan Province and local county: population and missing
girls
By 2000 Henan Province had become China’s most populous
province, with a total population of more than 91 million and a density
of 554 persons per square kilometre (Henan, 2005). The sex ratio for
the total population in 2000 was 106 males per 100 females, having
risen from 104 in 1981. 3 The sex ratio for children aged 1-4 in 2000
had shot up to 136 males per 100 females, with nearly ½ million girls
missing for the previous four years, 1996-1999. 4 Henan’s disturbingly
high child sex ratio is among the highest in China.
The county in which Huang Tu Village is located had about
529,000 people in 1988, and reached nearly 643,000 in 2000 (China
Census 2000). A breakdown of population by age and sex at the
county level shows that sex ratios began to rise in the mid-1980s,
shortly after the one-child policy was established, and rose rapidly at
the end of that decade (Figure 1).
Starting in 1985, a similar rise in the proportion of boys was
recorded at the township (administrative village) level, a unit that
encompasses more than ten large villages. Abnormally high sex ratios
thus appeared in this rural area fairly soon after the family planning
policy was introduced, and before ultrasound machines were
commonly available in rural areas and county hospitals (Figure 2).
These county and township data show that the broad pattern of
missing girls was not acute until the 1980s. In 2000, the pattern of
elevated child sex ratios persists. When compared to the provincial
child sex ratios (aged 1-4) with an alarming ratio of 136 males per 100
females, the county shows an even higher sex ratio of 146 males per
100 females for children aged 1 to 4. Based on the number of recorded
male children, 23,253 females were expected, but only 16,859 were
counted. An estimated 6,394 female children were missing (Table 1).
3 This is an abnormally high sex ratio for total population. Normally, sex ratios for
total population are much lower due to the greater longevity of women.
4 The population of boys age 1-4 in Henan in 2000 was 2,360,487. Dividing this
number by 1.06 gives 2,225,939, the expected number of girls. The reported number
of girls was only 1,731,048, a difference of nearly 1/2 million.
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